Construction is already underway on the Shimao Intercontinental Hotel in the Songjiang District of Shanghai - a five-star, 19-story, 380-room, luxury hotel built into an abandoned, part-flooded quarry (Image: Atkins)

The pièce de résistance is surely the waterfall which will plunge down in front of the hotel's facade and into the quarry (Image: Atkins)

Rather than drain what water there is in the quarry, it appears that the idea instead is to add to it, filling it to become a sunken artificial lake (Image: Atkins)

Though at this point only computer-rendered images area available for this audacious project, don't be mistaken. This is no mere concept. In fact, construction is already underway on the Shimao Intercontinental Hotel in the Songjiang District of Shanghai - a five-star, 19-story, 380-room, luxury hotel built into an abandoned, part-flooded quarry.